1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inflatable product, and in particular, to a connection structure for use with inflatable products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, most of the inflatable products on the market are made up of a top layer and a bottom layer, which are made from environmentally friendly materials, such as PVC and TPU. For example, a current inflatable mattress is generally formed of a top layer having a uniform thickness and strength, a bottom layer, connecting coils that function as tension members, and a surrounding material layer. The top layer and the bottom layer are joined all around, through the surrounding material layer, by means of high-frequency welding, to form a sealed air chamber. A plurality of coils or tension members are joined between the top and bottom layers via high-frequency welding. In this manner, after the mattress is inflated, the top and bottom layers are kept flat under the pull of the tension members, so as to form the desired shape for the mattress. The top layer and the bottom layer typically both have a uniform thickness. When such a product is used, the base positions where the tension members are joined with the top and bottom layers are subject to a maximum stress. In addition, because the base positions where two layers having a uniform thickness and strength are joined by high-frequency welding become thinner due to welding, the stress-resistant strength of the base positions is much lower than that of the positions free from such welding. Therefore, the base positions are most likely to be torn during use, and the service life of the product is thus shortened.
Thus, when inflatable products such as mattresses, inflatable pools, inflatable recreational products, life-saving and protecting products, and the like, are manufactured, it is necessary to improve the tensile strength of the base positions where the top layer and the bottom layer are joined, and to ensure that the joints of the top layer and the bottom layer are unlikely to be damaged during welding. One attempt to address this problem is to uniformly increase the overall thickness of the top layer and the bottom layer. However, this uniform increase in thickness increases the weight of resulting product, making it difficult to carry or transport, and also increases the cost of the product.
There remains a need for an improved connection structure for inflatable products that avoids the drawbacks identified above.